MV The Second Snark was built in 1938 by William Denny for use in their Dumbarton shipyard as a tug and tender, replacing their previous steam driven vessel The Snark. The company went into liquidation in 1963, and the ship was taken over by Brown Brothers. They sold The Second Snark to Clyde Marine Motoring in 1969.
She is listed as a National Historic Ship.[1] Having been laid up for over two years at Fairlie Harbour, she was restored to her 'as-built' 1938 condition and her passenger certificate renewed in 2011.
Layout
The Second Snark is a small vessel, with a passenger capacity of 48.[2] She retains many original features including teak decks, varnished woodwork and polished brass. There is one heated room with seating and a single toilet facility below deck.
Service
William Denny used The Second Snark in their Dumbarton shipyard as a tug and tender. From 1960 to 1963 she also provided summer cruises on the Firth of Forth, returning to the Clyde in winter. Initially, Brown Brothers continued Forth cruises, while concentrating on research work for ship stabilisers. When the research project was completed in 1969, they sold The Second Snark to Clyde Marine Motoring.
From August 2011, Clyde Marine Services operated The Second Snark as a ferry between Govan and Yorkhill Quay where Glasgow's new Riverside Museum (the new transport museum) and the Tall Ship (Glenlee) are located. On Monday 11 July 2011, she made an appearance in James Watt Dock in Greenock as part of the Greenock Tall Ships Race event. In 2012, she performed a charter to Loch Riddon with PSWaverley. She tendered to the paddle steamer, ferrying passengers ashore at Ormidale in a recreation of the same sailing 40 years earlier.[1][5]
The Second Snark awaiting restoration at the James Watt Dock in Greenock
In summer 2018 it was reported that the venerable vessel had been sold by Clyde Marine Services to a billionaire businessman who intended to utilise her as a tender to his racing yachts in France as well as the United States[6] and she was moved to Plymouth for a refit. However, late in 2019 she was acquired by a preservation group with substantial funding from former owner Hamish Munro and returned to Fairlie on the Firth of Clyde.[7] In 2020 the vessel was moved to the James Watt Dock in Greenock and the premises of Dales Marine who will carry out restoration work in phases once funds have been raised and design work completed.[8]
The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles. The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula, which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran. Within the Firth of Clyde is another major island – the Isle of Bute. Given its strategic location at the entrance to the middle and upper Clyde, Bute played a vital naval military role during World War II.
Caledonian MacBrayne, usually shortened to CalMac, is the major operator of passenger and vehicle ferries, and ferry services, between the mainland of Scotland and 22 of the major islands on Scotland's west coast. Since 2006, the company's official name has been CalMac Ferries Ltd, although it still operates as Caledonian MacBrayne. In 2006, it became a subsidiary of holding company David MacBrayne, which is owned by the Scottish Government.
Kilcreggan is a village on the Rosneath peninsula in Argyll and Bute, West of Scotland.
PS Waverley is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world. Built in 1946, she sailed from Craigendoran on the Firth of Clyde to Arrochar on Loch Long until 1973. Bought by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society (PSPS), she has been restored to her 1947 appearance and now operates passenger excursions around the British coast.
SS Sir Walter Scott is a small steamship that has provided pleasure cruises and a ferry service on Loch Katrine in the scenic Trossachs of Scotland for more than a century, and is the only surviving screw steamer in regular passenger service in Scotland. She is named after the writer Walter Scott, who set his 1810 poem Lady of the Lake, and his 1818 novel Rob Roy around Loch Katrine.
TS Queen Mary is a Clyde steamer launched in 1933 at the William Denny shipyard, Dumbarton, for Williamson-Buchanan Steamers. She is currently being restored as a museum ship, in Glasgow.
The Clyde steamer is the collective term for several passenger services that existed on the River Clyde in Scotland, running from Glasgow downstream to Rothesay and other towns, a journey known as going doon the watter.
The Tail of the Bank is the name given to the anchorage in the upper Firth of Clyde immediately North of Greenock, between Inverclyde and Argyll and Bute. This area of the Firth gets its name from the deep water immediately to the west of the sandbank which marks the entrance to the navigable channel up the Estuary of the River Clyde.
MV Kenilworth is a historic passenger ferry built in 1936 as MV Hotspur II. She was used on the Hythe Ferry service across Southampton Water until 1978, and then on the Kilcreggan ferry on the Firth of Clyde until 2007.
William Denny and Brothers Limited, often referred to simply as Denny, was a Scottish shipbuilding company.
The Captayannis was a Greek sugar-carrying vessel that sank in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland in 1974.
The Caledonian MacBrayne fleet is the largest fleet of car and passenger ferries in the United Kingdom, with 34 ferries in operation, 2 on charter and another 6 on order. The company provides lifeline services to 23 islands off the west coast of Scotland, as well as operating routes in the Firth of Clyde.
Cruiser is a passenger vessel owned by Clyde Marine Services Ltd operating in the River Clyde as part of the company's charter cruise fleet. Her former names are Southsea Queen, Hythe Hotspur and Poole Scene.
MV Pioneer is a stern / side loading ferry built in 1974, in service for 29 years covering nearly all of Caledonian MacBrayne's routes. She now serves the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea and was chartered to rescue Liberian refugees.
MV Chieftain, ex-Seabus, is a passenger ferry built in 2007 for Clyde Marine Services to run the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) Gourock to Kilcreggan service on the Firth of Clyde.
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MV Juno was a passenger and vehicle ferry operated by Caledonian MacBrayne on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland between 1974 and 2007. She was the middle of three vessels nicknamed "streakers", the first in the Calmac fleet to be fitted with Voith Schneider Propellers. Juno left service in early 2007 and was laid up at Rosneath for 4 years. On 18 May 2011, she was beached there for scrapping and was gone by the end of July.
MV Arran was a pioneering Firth of Clyde vehicle ferry introduced by Caledonian Steam Packet Company in 1953. She spent fifteen years on the Upper Clyde crossings, followed by five years at Islay. Initially hoist-loading, via side ramps, these were replaced by a stern ramp in 1973. During her final years with CalMac, she relieved across the network. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to turn her into a floating restaurant, before she was scrapped in 1993.
Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited owns the ferries, ports, harbours and infrastructure for the ferry services serving the west coast of Scotland, the Firth of Clyde and the Northern Isles.
The Rosneath Peninsula is a peninsula in Argyll and Bute, western Scotland. Formerly in the historic county of Dunbartonshire, it is formed on its eastern shore from the confluence of the Firth of Clyde with the Gare Loch, and of the Clyde with Loch Long to the west.
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